


Changing the River's Course

by LynMars79



Series: Tales of the Seventh Era [6]
Category: Final Fantasy XIV
Genre: Gen, Gridania, Heavensward, Padjal, Stormblood, Teachers and students, a realm reborn, others do show up but aren't a focus
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-11
Updated: 2019-06-11
Packaged: 2020-04-24 12:24:31
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,394
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19173223
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LynMars79/pseuds/LynMars79
Summary: Two padjal and the changes they must lead their people--and themselves--through.Some spoilers for the CNJ/WHM quests through Stormblood, a tiny bit of DRK quests too.





	Changing the River's Course

**Author's Note:**

> Changed up a little bit of the lvl 54 DRK quest for Reasons. I'm probably not done with the trio of blonde teen healer girls. This one's been on my brain for a bit, and some post-4.56 dialogue when you poke certain NPCs maybe helped.

“You are hesitant,” the elder padjal’s voice did not quite startle Kan-E-Senna, though it did rouse her from staring at the steps leading to the airship landing.

She turned to face E-Sumi-Yan with a smile. “I have never left the Twelveswood, yet find I must to meet with the other leaders of Eorzea. ‘Tis a strange feeling.”

“Trust in the Wind, if not in the machine utilizing its aspect to carry you thither,” he said in his calm tone and as low as his voice was able to go, trapped forever in youth. She knew trees younger than her predecessor.

“I am surprised; ‘twas you who have taught me that my place, that all padjal, belong in the Wood.”

“But as you have said, you are now the Elder Seedseer, and the other leaders of Eorzea require your counsel,” he replied. “I admit to disliking your leaving, but recognize the necessity.”

“Careful, Brother,” she teased gently. “O-App-Pesi will say you are getting soft in your old age.”

“Ha!” E-Sumi snorted. “He would claim that I owe him a drink, were that the case.” He turned his pale gaze to the sky, where Dalamud hung low, a bright red even at midday. “I need not tell you how restless are the elementals. A great change is coming to the realm, and to safeguard our people, compromises must be made.”

“We are the bridge between Man and Nature,” she replied, repeating words he had taught her since she was a child of but six summers.

E-Sumi nodded. “There is naught natural about what is happening to Menphina’s Hound,” he said. “But if Gridania can help to stop it and restore the balance of the realm, then we shall do our part. And you, child, shall lead us there--as I could not.”

“Do you believe I make the right choice?” Kan-E asked quietly enough to be nearly drowned out by the preparations on the landing. A small part of her, ever the student, yet craved his approval. The greater part, however, had a different fear: her people needed her to make the best decision for their continued way of life. Could she balance their desires with the reality of necessity?

He took his time responding, enough that she almost wasn’t sure he had heard. Finally, he sighed. “Yes. I dislike it, but see no other way.” E-Sumi reached out and rested his hand on her shoulder. “You were chosen by the Great One for a reason, Kan-E. You must hold fast to your convictions. Now more than ever.”

She thought of all the advisors and guildmasters who had argued and fussed over the last few moons. Many of them did disagree, citing history and precedents and options that focused solely on Gridania and her people.

In her heart, however, Kan-E could not ignore the world beyond her beloved forest, nor could she believe that the world’s troubles would remain locked outside the Hedge.

The call went up and the engines whirred. “Time to go,” E-Sumi said, giving her shoulder one last squeeze.

Kan-E nodded as his hand fell away. Squaring her shoulders, she let out her breath and stepped forward to meet destiny.

* * *

“That girl shall be the death of my patience,” E-Sumi said, rubbing his forehead.

Kan-E could only laugh. “Well, you _did_ ask Sylphie’s aid.”

“She has been doing much better,” E-Sumi countered. “And since these visitors are also friends of our esteemed colleague, it seemed a reasonable idea to put the child at ease by having another close to her age present.” He sighed, a long-suffering noise Kan-E had not heard him make since her own childhood, when he had all three Sennas underfoot.

“Rielle is a lonely child, isn’t she?” Kan-E asked, looking to where the girl in question spoke with Sylphie. The young Hearer was doing her best to make the serious elezen girl laugh, and had managed to draw a few smiles and even a giggle while the padjal observed. Testing Brother E-Sumi’s patience with various stunts, unwarranted magic, and even wordplay, seemed to be part and parcel of Sylphie’s methods.

“She will not speak of her past, or what occurred to have her guardians bring her here,” E-Sumi said. “But the more I study her aether, the more I see.”

Kan-E nodded. “I concur with your theory so far. If I am not needed…?”

E-Sumi nodded absently, eyes trained on the child. Kan-E couldn’t help but smile at his familiar focus, though the subject--and consequences--of the girl’s impressive aetheric ability was so grim. Kan-E stepped away and began the journey out of the conjurers’ part of the Fane.

Waiting outside was the pale au ra man with black scales and blacker armor. His uncombed hair was clean for now, sticking every which way. There were stains upon his gear, and Kan-E knew well enough what had made them.

Yet she also saw how much he cared for Rielle, even if he himself did not yet. Kan-E was surprised by the sharp ache in her heart, for Ser Sidurgu had suddenly reminded her of another young man who had felt responsible for a child he had guided to adulthood with all the care of a fiercely protective brother.

Where were the Archons and their Antecedent? Working from the shadows to clear their names and restore peace in Thanalan? Kan-E couldn’t believe they had left the realm entirely; the Warrior of Light’s welcome presence was proof of that.

Kan-E prayed again to the Matron that they were safe, and if not yet together, they soon would be again. She smiled up at the dour Ishgardian. “Brother E-Sumi will be finished soon,” she assured him. “I pray you find the answers you seek for your ward.”

Sidurgu grunted an acknowledgement. His famous companion shot him a dark look, prompting Sidurgu to straighten. “...Thank you, Seedseer,” he amended, with a stiffly formal bow.

Kan-E smiled. “You are quite welcome, my friends.” She locked eyes with the Warrior of Light for a moment, unsurprised when that gaze broke quickly.

Some discussions required far more time to ready.

* * *

“A-Ruhn is _where?_ ” Kan-E blinked at her sister as the padjals stood on the dais of the Lotus Stand. The winds creaked gently through the surrounding trees and the brook babbled merrily, but all Kan-E could hear was a rushing in her veins.

Raya-O shrugged widely. “Wandering. Eschiva Keyes is with him, just as her grandfather served Master A-Towa-Cant years ago.”

“A-Towa never returned, lost on the slopes of U'Ghamaro,” E-Sumi said in a quiet, low tone. Kan-E could feel his anger, a dim echo of her own fear. “We should have been consulted--”

“And you would just say no,” Raya-O said, flipping her hair over her shoulder for emphasis. “The corruption had to be dealt with at its source, and the white mages had to be the ones to do it. Our sister leaves the Twelveswood often enough!”

“That is different,” E-Una-Kotor pointed out. “She is the Elder Seedseer and must represent our nation to the rest of the realm.”

“But you dealt with the source of the corruption, so it no longer threatens the Wood,” O-App-Pesi pointed out.

“And the next time a threat arises, and we’re too late to stop it, because we could not see it coming? Because we are ignorant of what occurs outside the Hedge?” Raya-O countered, nose scrunched and fists balled as she glowered at the elder padjal. “Besides, we _did_ have help from the Warrior of Light-- _this_ time. Will we always?”

E-Una scowled. O-App looked thoughtful--Raya-O’s words had reached him, Kan-E realized. She glanced at E-Sumi, but the conjuration master was looking down and away, at the water flowing around the dais, lost in his own thoughts.

“It is not so different,” she began, the others’ attention turning to her. “Than what I myself must do, to ensure the safety of not only the Twelveswood, but all the realm. My sister is right; we cannot remain ignorant of threats that originate outside the Hedge. The last time we tried to do so, we were faced with the Calamity.” She paused a moment, to collect her thoughts. “I am concerned for my brother, as any elder sister should be. Yet we must remember, too, that A-Ruhn hears the elementals with more clarity than any other. If he feels this is the path he must walk to safeguard that which we hold dear, then only they could change his course, and we must allow him to walk with them, wheresoever they lead.”

The Elder Seedseer had spoken; they grumbled, but nodded. Raya-O relaxed, turning and flouncing out ahead of the others, vindicated. E-Una bowed and followed Raya-O out; no doubt he would attempt to continue a line of argument as they returned to their respective duties in the South Shroud. O-App bowed more naturally, sparing a glance at the other padjal yet remaining on the dais with Kan-E, before he too turned to leave.

Only E-Sumi stood with her now, as the sun began to sink over the western hills, the sky turning to gold through the trees. He still watched the water.

“You disagree?” She quietly asked, after a full quarter bell had passed in thoughtful silence.

“No,” E-Sumi said, his thin voice almost startling after the quiet. “I realized after I last spoke that I was responding with fear, not thought.” He looked at her, the shadow of a smile almost curving his lips, while his eyes were glossy with old grief. “I remember when A-Towa was lost to us. It seems so long ago, yet also too recently.” He chuckled, bitterly. “Mayhap I am just too old.”

“Never,” she replied fondly. She looked toward the path leading out of the Lotus Stand. The Hearers and Keepers who were her near-constant attendants hovered at the fringes of the clearing, allowing the padjals privacy. “I am honestly surprised; I did not think my siblings ready, let alone _willing_ , to leave the Twelveswood themselves. And now my brother walks the realm, while my sister defends their choice of action.”

“I was thinking of the river,” E-Sumi said. “How it flows in a seemingly constant channel. Yet we both know it to always be cutting new paths, flooding its banks, and even altering course entirely, with but a simple change to where the water may flow freely.”

“Mayhap we too must flow with the changes to the realm,” Kan-E replied.

“Mmm. Like the river, it will take time, I think,” he said. “We who live so long become set in our ways. Yet we also have the benefit of seeing many different methods, and what works, and what does not, over the years. It bears consideration, at the least.” He shook his head, his limbs loosening, and he drew himself as tall as his stunted height allowed. “We should keep close tabs on A-Ruhn, at the least, but let the boy explore the world, helping who he will, and learning what he can. And when he one day returns, the knowledge he has gained can only benefit Gridania.”

She nodded; E-Sumi would know he echoed the words in her own heart, but they must be said, all the same. Not for her benefit, though.

“Good eve, Elder Seedseer,” he said, bowing low.

She curtseyed. “Good eve, Brother E-Sumi.” She watched as he walked away, following the path the others had already left by. In the evening light, she thought that for a moment, he almost looked his age.

* * *

E-Sumi was pacing, hands clasped at the small of his back, his face twisting as he argued with himself. Kan-E entered the master’s study and waited for him to acknowledge her presence. After a moment, he faced away and took a deep breath, his frame stiff. “Is there aught you require, Elder Seedseer?” He asked, his voice flat with affected calm.

“Your students are...concerned, Brother,” she replied. “They say you traveled to the East End beyond Baelsar’s Wall, to confer with your favorite pupils, but returned...in an unusual state of emotion.”

“I...am second guessing myself,” he admitted, shoulders and head dropping. “I feel swept along the currents of change, and am having difficulty keeping my head above the surface.”

Kan-E crossed to the divan he kept in his study; there had been times she had found him dozing there, having neglected to return to his chambers for proper rest. She took a seat, leaning Claustrum against the wall in easy reach. “Care to share what has you so out of sorts?” Her lips quirked into a smile. “Or is Sylphie simply being herself again?”

He barked out a laugh and turned. “She is at that!” He said as he joined her, standing by the divan. “They discovered the source of the aetheric disturbance in the East End.”

“And?”

“‘Tis a padjal,” he said quietly. “Hidden away by her mother, and now coming into her power.”

Kan-E blinked. “A padjal...raised outside the Twelveswood? Away from the Fane?” As he nodded, Kan-E’s mind attempted to adjust to the notion. “Where is this child now?”

“In East End,” E-Sumi replied matter-of-factly. “With her mother, and Sylphie.”

“You...let her stay?” Kan-E stared at him.

“They made a good case,” he said with a shrug. “She has yet to control her growing abilities, and emotional upset makes it more difficult.” He paused. “The mother is dying; her heart will not last much longer.”

“You are giving them time,” Kan-E replied.

“We can wait for the girl’s presence in the Fane,” he said. “My primary concern is if _she_ can afford to wait to join _us_. Her power grows by the day.”

“But her mother is not well enough to make the journey?”

E-Sumi blinked, and Kan-E wondered if the notion had even occurred to him. “She...no, I don’t believe so, even if she were willing,” he replied after a moment. “She took Gatty away out of fear, once she realized her child’s destiny. She had lost her husband, and refused to allow her child to be taken as well, despite all reason. She is still...unwilling to part with her, despite the danger. Thank the Matron for the Warrior of Light; voidsent drawn to the child’s aether have been attacking, and talented as Sylphie is, she could not hope to defend Gatty and Sanche alone.”

Kan-E considered her elder’s rambling--what passed for it, at least, for E-Sumi--and finally nodded. “Then I fail to see the problem, Brother.”

He frowned. “The child belongs in the Fane; has from the moment her horns appeared.”

“Yet you yourself said we could wait for her attendance.”

E-Sumi shook his head. “Only because we have been ignorant of her presence until now, so she has no position we need be concerned for, beyond that of a student who must learn--and will be woefully behind, strongly gifted as she is.”

Kan-E nodded. “If you had wished to take the child from her mother, you would have--and the others would not have stopped you.”

“I...am not so sure about that,” he said reluctantly. “But they agreed to my compromise.”

Kan-E tried not to smile as E-Sumi sighed and sat next to her. “I should have noted the child’s birth to begin with,” he said. “This situation is one of my own making, and correcting it is proving rather more difficult than I care to admit.”

“We can but follow the river’s course,” Kan-E said gently. “We may influence our own journey, but the flow is inevitable.”

He considered that for a long moment. “Things have been changing, in these years since the Calamity,” he finally said. “A-Ruhn wanders as A-Towa once did. A non-Padjal is of the White. And one of the Elementals’ chosen has grown up on the fringes of the Twelveswood, away from the Fane but with her mother.” He paused again, then shook his head again. “And I cannot say I disagree with all these changes, though my old heart yearns for the comfort of the old ways.”

“There is safety in the familiar,” Kan-E agreed. “But we who lead must be willing to walk new paths, that they may become the familiar roads to those who follow.”

He side-eyed her. “That sounds familiar.”

She shrugged and smiled. “I must have heard it from a teacher, once.”

He returned her smile. “Thank you, for listening. I have much to do, however, to ensure the medicine Sanche needs is ready for the next shipment. And I do not wish to keep you longer from your own duties.”

Kan-E nodded. Any further comments would be dismissed, she knew. She curtsied before taking up Claustrum again and leaving the master’s study.

As she walked, Kan-E thought of a small padjal girl growing up in Garlean-occupied territory, far from the heart of the Twelveswood, knowing an entirely different life than the others like her. Than Kan-E had, as a child.

Claustrum felt oddly heavy, and for the first time in a very long time, Kan-E was conscious of her horns as she walked through the Fane.

* * *

“Things certainly seem different,” Kan-E said.

“And yet somehow the same,” E-Sumi replied. “Sylphie studies more, and attends lectures regularly--though if she is ever on time, I fear Hearer Nolanel might faint.”

Kan-E suppressed a giggle. “I must say that Gatty is a breath of fresh air; she asks questions that does make one think.”

“The benefits of growing up outside our traditions,” E-Sumi said. “While so many accept a thing as how it has always been done, Gatty demands substantial answers as to _why_. What do the elementals really say, or want, or are we simply assuming? It is...enlightening.”

“Some find it vexing,” Kan-E noted.

“Including myself at times,” he agreed. “However, I more often find myself performing my own studies, to seek a satisfactory answer. There are times I cannot find one.”

“Which is why you called for me?” Kan-E asked, grinning.

E-Sumi nodded. “There are certain matters I believe we ought to consider, but I would discuss them with you before bringing them to the other Seed--”

A rush of pounding footsteps and girlish giggles interrupted the guildmaster as two girls burst into the room, one waving a letter in hand. “Brother E-Sumi, a letter from Ishgard! Oh, Matron’s grace, the Elder Seedseer!” Sylphie had enough tact, at least, to look embarrassed.

Gatty snatched the letter from Sylphie’s suddenly slack hand. “Hello, Seedseer!” She chirped, thrusting the letter at Brother E-Sumi. “We’re sorry to interrupt, but Sylphie said it must be important!”

Kan-E smiled at the girls as E-Sumi sighed and took the letter. “I’m certain she did. We shall discuss the importance of letters versus knocking later,” he said dryly.

“We um. We can go. We should go,” Sylphie said.

“Please, be at ease,” Kan-E said. “Besides, there shan’t be a moment’s rest if Brother E-Sumi doesn’t share the contents of the letter.”

He tried to glower at her, but failed as she watched him with long-practiced serenity. E-Sumi sighed, outnumbered, and opened the letter, glancing quickly through its contents. “Well, ‘twould seem young Rielle wishes to advance her own conjury studies, to aid her guardian.”

Sylphie clapped. “Oh, she could come here and study with Gatty and me!” She turned to the young padjal. “You’ll like Rielle! She’s a bit quiet, but smart and sweet, and also friends with--”

“Sylphie!” E-Sumi called. “Nothing is decided yet. But I will be sure to let her know she will have more than enough support here.”

The bells chimed throughout the Fane, halting Sylphie’s reply. “Oh, that’s the bell for Hearer Nolanel’s lecture!” Gatty gasped. “We have to go!” She grabbed Sylphie’s hand to drag her away.

“Right! Yes!” Sylphie said, not convinced. “Sorry again for interrupting, Elder Seedseer, Brother E-Sumi! Tell Rielle I said hello!”

As quickly as they had rushed in, the girls were gone again, the door banging closed behind them. Kan-E could not help but finally release the giggle she had been holding--which quickly bubbled into a laugh, as E-Sumi stood there, letter in hand, blinking toward the door and then at her, bewildered.

His own thin lips twitched and he shook his head. “Changes indeed,” he managed to say, before giving in to his own laughter.


End file.
